1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to particulate materials such as electrocatalyst particles and complex multi-component particles for the fabrication of energy devices such as fuel cells. The present invention also relates to improved energy devices incorporating the particulate materials.
2. Description of Related Art
With the advent of portable and hand-held electronic devices and an increasing demand for electric automobiles due to the increased strain on non-renewable natural resources, there is a need for the rapid development of high performance, economical power systems. Such power systems include improved devices for energy storage using batteries and energy generation using fuel cells.
Fuel cells are electrochemical devices that are capable of converting the energy of a chemical reaction into electrical energy without combustion and with virtually no pollution. Fuel cells are unlike batteries because fuel cells convert chemical energy to electrical energy as the chemical reactants are continuously delivered to the fuel cell. When the fuel cell is off, it has zero electrical potential. As a result, fuel cells are typically used to produce a continuous source of electrical energy and compete with other forms of continuous electrical energy production such as the combustion engine, nuclear power and coal-fired power stations. Different types of fuel cells are categorized by the electrolyte used in the fuel cell. The five main types of fuel cells are alkaline, molten carbonate, phosphoric acid, solid oxide and proton exchange membrane (PEM) or polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs).
One of the critical requirements for these energy devices is the efficient catalytic conversion of the reactants to electrical energy. A significant obstacle to the wide-scale commercialization of such devices is the need for highly efficient electrocatalyst materials for this conversion process.
One example of a fuel cell utilizing electrocatalysts for the chemical reactions is a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). A PEMFC stack typically includes tens to hundreds of membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) each including a cathode layer and an anode layer. The anode and cathode sandwich a proton exchange membrane that has a catalyst layer on each side of the membrane. Power is generated when hydrogen is fed into the anode and oxygen (air) is fed into the cathode. In a reaction typically catalyzed by a platinum-based catalyst in the catalyst layer of the anode, the hydrogen ionizes to form protons and electrons. The protons are transported through the proton exchange membrane to a catalyst layer on the opposite side of the membrane (the cathode) where another catalyst, typically platinum or a platinum alloy, catalyzes the reaction of the protons with oxygen to form water. The reactions can be written as follows:Anode: 2H2→4H++4e−Cathode: 4H++4e−+O2→2H2OOverall: 2H2+O2→2H2OThe electrons formed at the anode are routed to the cathode through an electrical circuit which provides the electrical power.
The critical issues that must be addressed for the successful commercialization of fuel cells are cell cost, cell performance and operating lifetime. For stationary applications improved power density is critical whereas for automotive applications higher voltage efficiencies are necessary. In terms of fuel cell cost, current fuel cell stacks employ MEA's that include platinum electrocatalysts with a total loading of about 1 milligram of platinum per square centimeter of electrode (1 mgPt/cm2), including both the anode and cathode. At a typical cell performance of 0.42 Watts per square centimeter, about 2.4 grams of platinum per kilowatt is required (1 mgPt/cm2 over 0.42 Watts/cm2). Platinum metal is very expensive and a significant cost reduction in the electrocatalyst is necessary for these cells to become economically viable. However, reducing the amount of precious metal per se is not a suitable solution to reduce cost, because the performance for the fuel cell may suffer and there is also a strong demand for improved cell performance
The major technical challenge is improving the performance of the cathode with air as the oxidant. Platinum metal electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction are used in both alkaline and acid electrolyte media and are used in PEM fuel cells, alkaline fuel cells, hybrid fuel cells and others.
The conventional synthesis of electrocatalyst powders that include an active species on a support material involves several steps. First, an appropriate high surface area catalyst support (e.g., carbon) is mixed with a solution containing the precursor of the catalytic active species e.g., platinum). Sufficient contact time is used for the adsorption of the active species precursor to occur and to achieve a uniform deposition of the precursor on the support surface. A reducing agent is often added to reduce the metal-containing precursor to a reduced metal species. Surfactants may also be added to control the size of the reduced metal particles. The electrocatalyst is then filtered from the solution, dried, and in some cases heated to a relatively high temperature under an inert atmosphere (to avoid combustion of the carbon) to crystallize or alloy (if two metals were co-reduced) the metal particles on the carbon support. The solution that is recovered from the filtrate is treated to extract unreacted precious metal and to make it environmentally safe for disposal.
The powder product derived from the foregoing process does not have a controlled aggregate particle structure and requires further processing (such as ball milling) to convert the large range of aggregate particle sizes (generally from about 10 μm to 1,000 μm) to a suitable size (from about 1 μm to 10 μm) for further processing into a formulation for MEA construction. The method is labor intensive, requires many unit operations and does not result in good control over the size and size distribution of the electrocatalyst particles.
Methods for preparing noble metal electrocatalyst materials are known in the art. U.S. Pat. No. 4,052,336 by VanMontfoort et al. discloses a process for preparing an active noble metal catalyst on a carbon carrier, such as palladium on carbon, by adsorbing a salt of the metal onto the carbon, forming an oxide or hydroxide from the metal salt and reducing the oxide or hydroxide to a metal. The carbon support comprises porous active carbon particles having a widely varying particle size of less than 1 μm up to 60 μm. The catalyst comprises from about 0.1 to about 15 percent by weight of the noble metal. It is disclosed that the noble metal is deposited on the carbon carrier in the form of very small crystallites which have a high degree of catalytic activity per gram of noble metal.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,136,059 by Jalan et al. discloses a method for the production of electrochemically active platinum particles for use in fuel cell electrodes. The particles are formed by mixing chloroplatinic acid and sodium dithionite in water to provide a colloidal dispersion which is absorbed onto a support material (e.g., carbon black).
U.S. Pat. No. 4,482,641 by Wennerberg discloses a high surface area porous active carbon matrix containing a uniform dispersion of a metal. The material is formed by spray drying a carbon precursor and a metal precursor to form particles and then pyrolyzing the spray dried particles under an inert gas and in the presence of an alkali metal hydroxide. A preferred heating method for the pyrolyzation step is to heat using microwave heating. It is disclosed that the metal crystals have a size from about 5 to 30 angstroms and are disposed on active carbon having a cage-like structure.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,569,924 by Ozin et al. discloses a carbon-metal catalyst having an active metal such as silver deposited on the carbon substrate in a zero-valent, small cluster form. The catalyst is produced by vaporizing the metal under low vapor pressure conditions in an organic liquid solvent such that the metal dissolves in the solvent. The solvent is then contacted with carbon so that the complex diffuses onto the surface of the carbon and into the pores of the carbon. The carbon particles have a metal loading of 0.1 to 15 weight percent.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,652,537 by Tamura et al. discloses a process for producing a catalyst useful for converting carbon monoxide into carbon dioxide. The process includes contacting activated carbon with an aqueous solution of chloroplatinic acid, reducing the absorbed chloroplatinic acid to platinum with a reducing agent and decomposing the excess reducing agent. The catalyst preferably contains at least about 6 milligrams of platinum per gram of activated carbon. The activated carbon particles have an average grain size of from about 0.4 to about 10 millimeters.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,970,128 by Itoh et al. discloses a supported platinum alloy electrocatalyst for an acid electrolyte fuel cell. The platinum alloy includes platinum, iron and copper. The electrocatalyst has better initial activity and lifetime than conventional platinum or other multi-component alloy electrocatalysts. U.S. Pat. No. 5,489,563 by Brand et al. discloses a platinum/cobalt/chromium catalytic alloy which is precipitated onto a carbon support from nitrate salts.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,970,189 by Tachibana discloses a porous, metal-containing carbon material which includes fine particles of a metal having an average particle size of 1 μm or less dispersed in a carbonaceous body. The method includes mixing a metal oxide with an organic, carbonizing and converting the oxide to metal particles. The catalyst includes from about 5 to 50 weight percent metal.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,068,161 by Keck et al. discloses an electrocatalytic material suitable for use in phosphoric acid fuel cells. The material includes an alloy of platinum with another element such as titanium, chromium, manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel, copper, gallium, zirconium or hafnium. The platinum alloy loading is 20 to 60 weight percent and the electrochemical area of the alloy is greater than about 35 m2/g.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,120,699 by Weiss et al. discloses a catalyst containing from 0.01 to 5 weight percent platinum on a graphite support. The graphite support has a particle size distribution of from about 1 to 600 μm. The catalyst material has good longevity when used for hydrogenation reactions.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,453,169 by Callstrom et al. discloses an electrocatalytic material including glassy carbon which contains graphite crystals having a size of from about 1 to 20 nanometers.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,501,915 by Hards et al. discloses a porous electrode suitable for use in a solid polymer fuel cell which includes highly dispersed precious metal catalyst on particulate carbon which is impregnated with a proton conducting polymer.
The foregoing methods generally result in poor control over the aggregate particle size and size distribution of the catalyst, poor control over the aggregate particle morphology and microstructure of the electrocatalytic materials, as well as poor control over the dispersion and surface area of the active species on the carbon surface. Further, alloy compositions such as platinum/transition metal used for oxygen reduction in a fuel cell can not be made in a consistently reproducible fashion. The inability to control the fundamental powder characteristics is a major obstacle to the development of more efficient electrocatalyst materials.
It would be advantageous to provide a flexible production method capable of producing electrocatalyst powders which would enable control over the powder characteristics such as aggregate size and size distribution, aggregate morphology surface area and pore structure as well as the versatility to accommodate compositions which are either difficult or impossible to produce using existing production methods. It would be particularly advantageous if such powders could be produced in large quantities on a substantially continuous basis. It would also be advantageous to provide improved devices, such as fuel cells, having thin layers and improved properties.